FAN FICTION AU AND TIME TRAVEL
Flipped
Summary
Female Harry Potter (Juniper) wins the war but the cost is too much so she performs a ritual and performs dimension travel after much research when she is 24. Her counterpart is Cordelia Faye Black, the daughter of Altair Black and Adelaide Malfoy. Has memories of both the worlds. Lives in France. When Juniper (Harry) seeps into consciousness, she is 14. Born on Beltane. Thus even though she is a girl, she has a high standing among the Blacks. Has gone to Beauxabatons for her first three years. Born on May 1, 1927. Start school in 1938. Goes to Hogwarts in 1942. Meets Tom Riddle. (Romance and power play)
Disclaimer: The characters and the world in the story belong to J.K. Rowling. I am not earning any profit from it.
Note: I have been a fanfiction reader for quite a lot of years before I gave this fic a shot, so if you see any ideas seeping in that I do not openly acknowledge, just let me know and I will add the credits. I have read too many to keep a track of them but I will try my best.
1) The idea of totems belongs to Catsarecool who is writing A Maurader's plan .
2) The basic idea of dimension travel comes from Hollow Thunder, Vital Lightning by Aariya07. You will see quite a few similarities in the first couple of chapters but it diverges after that.
3) This is a gender bender. Harry was born a girl as Juniper Anastasia Potter. Everything is as it is in canon except for her romances and nineteen years later. This is not because I don't read slash or like it. You will see a lot of them in my favorites but because I don't think that I could do justice to that genre and because I want to do this. If you do not like such fics, do not read. Please do not flame. I will welcome criticisms, I know I am not perfect, just don't meaninglessly bash me for nothing.
For your references
"Talk"
"Thought"
"Parseltongue"
Interlude 5: Only Time can heal the call of goodbyes.
Cordelia's POV
Cordelia was rapidly reading through the parselscript in her room. It was Sunday evening. She had spent the morning in Quidditch practice after her encounter with Death. And she was now trying to figure out why her past memories were attacking her in this manner.
She knew she was an anomaly. She had defied great many laws and downright broke a lot of them by performing the time slash dimension travel.
She set the parselscript aside and jumped on the Egyptian hieroglyphics. She had to find something about it. And she was not searching blindly. She had a clue. Since most of her memories were centered on Siddharth, she knew it was related to her… position with magic, for lack of a better term.
All of her reading spread around her bed were centered on one magical phenomena… the occurrence of a child of magic.
A secret, not because it was highly kept or regulated, merely because it had surpassed the categories of legend and myth into the forgotten.
It did not last in living memory, except with a certain few sects that the magical world had lost contact with.
June had been 20 years old when she found out about it. She had been with Siddharth, visiting his community and it had sprung up.
She remembered that she had been searching so hard for a way back to Tom. She explained that she just wanted to save that boy, that little 11 year old Tom to the Malfoys and Siddharth.
Even after receiving her majority some six months after the battle of Hogwarts, in her prolonged stay with the Malfoys, June had not gone back to Gringotts. Bill Weasley had made all her dealings and she had no need of gold when she lived with the Malfoys. She had been coached into the idea of magical majority and what it meant to be the Lady of House of Potter and Black by Narcissa and she went to rightfully claim her rings at Gringotts when she turned 19.
She had found out far more than she had expected. As she had worn the Black ring and her magical aura had expanded, another ring had flung out from the mines of Gringotts and fitted itself onto her fingers.
The ring of Slytherin, rightfully hers. The goblins had no idea how it happened. The ring was too old and its history almost forgotten. Draco had suggested conquest. She had bought it, simply because she did not want to dwell on it. The ring rightfully belonged to Tom Marvolo Riddle, it would have been his, if circumstances had gone differently. Tom had been an issue for her, still was an issue for her. She was quite touchy about the subject. She had constantly felt that something was missing. Hermione had suggested that she had perhaps grown used to the presence of the horcrux and now that it was destroyed, June was missing something, but June instinctively had known that was not it.
Goblins informed her about the Slytherin castle. She had half-listened to it, too dazed in her head, remembering the memory of a younger Dumbledore as he introduced magic to the 11 year old boy.
She did not go there for a month. And when she decided to, it was because she wanted to bury Voldemort in the manor. She had gone alone. Nobody knew and while she was strolling down the dusty but intact castle, she had come across the portrait of Salazar Slytherin. He spoke a different tongue than English and she had still communicated easily with him. It was the first time she used parseltongue after the battle. She did not know that she could do that and when she had asked Salazar, later, he had deflected the question, telling her that some Slytherin might have married in the line and the gift was just appearing but his eyes had told a different story, a story he did not want to tell. June had not pushed him.
She had come to respect the man. He was fascinating, really. She had spent countless hours talking to him. No hatred for muggles, wariness yes, but hatred, no. The Basilisk had been a gift from a friend and she was a nice, gentle creature, smarter than the larger snake. Her name was Ursula. Salazar suspected that years of confinement had not done it any good. She told him about Riddle. He had not been impressed. In fact, he had tried to convince her not to interfere with Time, not because Tom Riddle was a half-blood. Slytherin's wife apparently had been a muggleborn. He did not want her to chase Tom because he did not think that Tom was redeemable. He said all his line was cursed, muttered more like it but since her majority June had impeccable senses and she heard it. She had tried coaxing out information about it from Salazer but his house was not famous for cunning just like that. He had easily avoided the topic.
June had admitted defeat, and asked him about his origins. That was something Slytherin had been happy to tell her. His mother was the daughter of a Naga woman, who had accidentally found herself in these isles. That was when she found out about Nagas. Apparently Nagas had an affinity to Phoenixes. Usually they bonded with a phoenix as a familiar and Salazar's grandmother had flamed herself in the isles and then had been captured. Her phoenix had tried rescuing her, multiple times but it failed. So his grandmother had become a slave. She died giving birth to Slytherin's mother, used for pleasure by Slytherin's grandfather and the phoenix went away, singing a lament. Slytherin's mother ran away from his grandfather when she was young before she could be exploited. She knew both the Archaic tongue of isles and pareltongue. She met a fellow magical and had Salazar. His father's animagus form had been a snake. He was in crass language called 'Slither in' and the name stuck. His mother was a Naga, green eyed, just like Salazar's grandmother and she too had an animagus, a snake, but it was more of shape shifting than Animagus. When she got angry, she got fangs and her eyes turned to slits. A Naga trait, Slytherin presumed and he learned that eventually when he met another Naga.
All Nagas shared few traits; green eyes in various shades, lived near what they called 'Jambudweepa', loved phoenixes and had animagi forms of snakes. Again, it was not animagi specifically, but a shape shifting power where Naga was literally a part of their spirit and magic.
June had been fascinated but her mind had been on Tom, all she could think was would the Nagas have any way in which she could travel through time and nothing else.
Until she met Siddharth.
Cordelia kept the book aside. She had found out what she was looking for and she had a solution, but she had relive some memories again, just because, just because she wanted to.
She went gingerly to her memory vault. It was filled with thousands of memories. It reminded her of the library of prophecy orbs in Department of mysteries. Each memory neatly labelled with the date and the person which it belonged to.
There were several million of them. From Ron, Hermione, all the Weasleys, Neville, Luna, Draco, Narcissa, Siddharth and of course hers. There were other. Interviews with various others about several topics, from goblins, centaurs and a lot many creatures.
She went towards the pensieve and focused on the memory of when she first met Siddharth. The pensieve was connected to all the memories. It would show her any memory from the memory vault that she wanted to see. She entered the pensieve.
She had visiting United States because she had heard about Veela trafficking from Fleur and one of Fleur's cousins had been entrapped there.
It was a big muggle casino and club. She had dressed to garner attention, courtesy of Narcissa and Emma Granger. A Scarlet colored dress hugged her scar less figure, two geometric cut straps went past her shoulders to a bare back, joining the dress back at waist until it flowed down in a skirt to cover half her thighs.
She had surprisingly been comfortable in her revealing attire. Narcissa had worked hard on getting her rid of her insecurities. June had not got rid of them but she had practiced enough to pretend that she had. Tonight, she was dressed as nobody would expect the clumsy June to dress as.
She had entered the club and she had felt a magical aura, an alluring one. She could always read auras after her majority but this one held her attention. It was old magic, very old magic. A wizard in a muggle club?
She had looked until her eye lay on a man from the Indian subcontinent. Surprisingly his eyes seemed to be searching for her. It was then that June realize that the man could see her aura too which was not possible because June had concealed it. He just gave her a sardonic smile, more of a smirk. He knew she was concealing it.
Their eyes held each other for some time. He was popular. He had people coming on at him. He brought two drinks up to her and offered her one silently. She had raised her brows. She had again smirked but he did not push the drink in her hand. Their eyes still held each other. There was something about them, they were so green and something about his aura, it was so familiar.
When the next number went up, he offered up a hand for dancing, handing the full glasses to a passing waiter.
She just looked at him. She knew that she was getting distracted, she could feel the wards in one of the penthouse suites and feel a dozen veelas and 4 wizards' cores. She should have gone to attend them but she had been unable to resist the chance. Old magic meant she could find out something, something that could help her reach Tom and she took the man's hand.
She was better at dancing after stepping on Draco's toes numerous times and Narcissa's patient teaching.
"You cast a spell on me, spell on me
You hit me like the sky fell on me, fell on me
And I decided you look well on me, well on me
So let's go somewhere no one else can see, you and me." The Music blared.
"What brings you here?" He asked.
"Life…"She had shortly said.
He had appeared confused but he shook it, "I am Siddharth." He literally shouted over the music, "And you are Ms. British person?"
"June…" She said shortly. He had labeled her British using her accent. Too bad she could not do the same.
"I have heard that name." He said.
"I am sure you have..." She had muttered and he had raised a brow.
"Where are you from?" She had asked. His accent was not normal.
"Nowhere you would know about." He had answered.
"I am sure, I can sense the old magic." She had replied tartly.
He looked amused, "And that old magic is why your magical cloak on your aura does not work lady. You are quite powerful. "
"Never seen a powerful women?" I asked, instantly tired at the idea of convincing a guy about my strength.
"Quite the contrary." He replied, "From where I come from, women kick ass!"
She gave him a questioning look. She did not believe him but he sounded not just honest, but almost careless about the fact that women were powerful.
"I live in a cloaked island somewhere in the three seas that surround India. We have both matrilineal and patrilineal lines. " He replied.
"That's interesting." She had commented, wondering about him, her motives less than stellar. She wanted information from him that could possibly alter the timeline for the past 7 decades. She could possibly initiate events that would counteract his birth. She may very well be thinking of wiping a great number of people she loved from history but she would take her chances.
Cordelia fast-forwarded through the memory. The next hour had passed in easy conversation. June had not felt this comfortable around someone in long time, someone with whom she could discuss magic but who did not know her as the savior, as Juniper Potter. Apparently the only magical community Siddharth knew was his. He stayed away from other magical worlds, preferring to travel through muggle means and in muggle worlds.
It had not lasted. One of the traffickers whom she had come to catch and beat had entered the club. June's face had been splattered across enough international magazines for him to know her.
June had quickly flashed a look to Siddharth, detangled her hand from Siddharth's hand and quietly made her way outside to the balcony of the skyscraper. Siddharth had curiously followed.
"I am here on a mission, excuse me!" She turned around outside and told me.
"Anything I can help with?" He had asked, curiosity laced his voice. She had been about to tell him to mind his business when the trafficker had made to balcony to have a smoke. June did not want to lose the element of the surprise and shockingly on a spur, she pushed Siddharth on the wall behind and planted a kiss on his lips.
Narcissa had told her about the trick. She had dismissed it. There was no way that she would just randomly kiss a boy to divert attention from herself but that was exactly what she found herself doing. He smelled distinct, like petrichor and earth and he kissed her back.
The trafficker had snorted and left the balcony. The pureblood sods could never stand PDA. One of her palms was cupping Siddharth's cheek and as she distinctly feel it shift beneath her palm. Both the events made her halt the kiss and look upto Siddharth's face. She saw slits with green eyes and a pale skin.
"A Naga..." She just whispered.
And under a moment, she found herself pinned to the wall.
"Who are you?" Anger shone clearly in his face.
"I thought you were extinct." She just whispered back to him.
"Well, we are not. Answer my question, witch!" He hissed.
"Juniper Potter at your service, young Naga." She inclined her head slightly in a formal gesture.
"You speak!" His voice was surprised. She could tell about his eyes with those dark green slits.
I do." She agreed.
"The only one who could speak was Slytherin's line in British isles. And his heir was a dark lord. Are you his daughter? What nefarious.." He began agitatedly. His canines elongated slightly.
June just let out a sardonic laugh, "Daughter, ha. You cannot be far off Naga. And you need to update your history. I killed the heir of Slytherin. I am the witch who defeated him. As for how I speak the tongue, I have no idea. I won the deeds of Slytherin castle, I guess by conquest and Salazer Slytherin, his portrait told me a bit about Nagas. I don't know much, only what he knew. Your people are safe. I never told another soul about them. Didn't I just say? I quite frankly thought you were extinct."
He calmed down and his eyes turned to normal forest green rather than the slits. He still looked wary.
"I have some business here. I am sorry to have startled you. I assure you, you are safe. I will just attend to it and leave back for home." She whispered to him and escaped from his arms as he stared at her.
They had met again 20 minutes later when he had interrupted her fight with the four traffickers as she levitated them and threw them across the room. Frankly, he was trying to help her, throwing blasts of magic.
"You are freeing creatures, Isn't Potter a pureblood name?" He had curiously asked under a silencing bubble.
"Not all of us are bigots. Creatures have life and they have rights. I am no one to deny them. I try and help when I can." June admitted. It was true. June would have not denied Fleur alarmed request even if she did not ulterior motives. She was just hoping that Veela clans would listen to her and help her by teaching her a few of their magics.
"What did Salazar tell you about Nagas?" He asked.
"I have business right now. I need to make sure that they reach home safely and I believe you would want your involvement to remain a secret. I am in States for another month. I have come … I have come in search of something. I am currently living in a muggle hotel, away from the magicals. I receive too much attention. If you want, seek me out there. If I am not wrong, you can trace my magic now. But fair warning, paparazzi is not far away when I am concerned, so approach me at your own risk. I might just end up being the reason why Nagas are rediscovered." She had murmured and done a side along apparition with all the veelas.
Siddharth had come looking for her. His curiosity had peeked and he could not help it. And when he came, he had known everything ever reported about her through newspapers and magazines. He had been 'undecided' about her, as he put it.
She had told him about the war in greater detail. She had not mentioned the horcruxes at all.
"How did he not die?" He had promptly asked.
"Soul magic." She had given him the broader term, "Certain Greek wizards dabbled with it and Riddle likely got hold of the idea from somewhere."
She had told him about Slytherin, the castle , the myths about him, about the old man himself, about his history with Nagas.
"Britain is an unlucky lands for Nagas." He had muttered darkly after hearing that.
She had given him a questioning look, "Our people always die there." He had said shortly.
"You come out of wherever your place is…"She asked.
"Rarely. Never without a purpose." He replied.
"Then what is your purpose Naga, if I may?" She had asked.
"Call me Siddharth." He had said, "I am purposeless. I have, for the lack of a better term, run away."
"I can get running away. I am running from everyone that I know, simply because it is smothering." She had muttered, offering him tea.
He had smiled a sad smile, "My grandfather died in Britain. Killed by a werewolf in one of the forests. His phoenix was able to flame the body back to home."
Both of them had just connected. She had eventually told him about Riddle and his childhood, how she wanted to reverse time, how she was exhausted of playing the savior all the time.
And he had eventually told her that he was the clan leader of the Nagas. He had inherited the title. He, at times, did not feel like taking a responsibility of an entire community but sometime he felt honor bound. Nagas had went into hiding as a community long time ago, afraid that their ways will be destroyed. They were still in touch with the main lands but they had for all purposes decided to declare a community death to save themselves from prosecution.
They had told each other a lot. He taught her parselmagic. She showed him the modern magic.
Cordelia shook herself from the onslaught of the details of the memories, instead focusing on the child of magic and her memories in relation to it.
She had questioned her inheritance of Slytherin deeds and her connection with Tom, after she felt a missing element in her magic after Siddharth and she separated. She could feel him from a distance and meanwhile June had been attacked with another onslaught of memories, not hers, ages old memories from points of view of women she had never seen.
She had been in US and Siddharth had come back to visit her when she had her first black out because the memories were too much. It had never crossed her mind to check Potter or Black libraries or vaults for information, or for that matter Slytherin.
Siddharth had been so worried that he had flamed her back to his home.
And it was there that she heard the term 'child of magic'. The healer, an old, really old lady called her the 'child of magic' and before she knew every member of the Naga clan present had went down on their knees including Siddharth. His expression was of awe and of surprise.
He had just muttered, "I should have known."
"How large is your core?" The lady, 'Amma', she was called.
"I do not know.My magic was bound until I was 18. I gained a substantial amount when it was unbound and then I had my majority. I have never felt magical exhaustion after that. I once apparated 15 people at once and I did not even break sweat. I spent a day battling vampire, now that exhausted me but I felt like going out in the woods. I fell asleep for a couple of hours and I was fine." June had rambled.
"A child of magic… and thinking you knew her for six months Saddhu and never realized." Amma gave an admonishing look to Siddharth.
"What is a child of magic?" She had asked in a faint whisper.
And she was told, "Children of magic are novelty, anomaly. They come every few centuries when magic's need is dire and it needs external protection. Children of magic come to earth to restore the balance of magic, restore the balance of what you white wizards call dark and light magic. They are gray. They thrive in nature. They are children of earth, their magic comes from every natural thing, so they have endless supply of magic at their hands. They can soak in the magic of the nearest tree or animal or plant. They can take the energy from sun and use it as magic. That is why you never get exhausted. They usually come to their majorities early. Yours probably did not come because your magic was bound. When they earn their majority, they learn the truth about themselves gradually. Do not be afraid of those memories, they are there to help you, guide you in restoring magic." Amma spoke in clear English, with a little lilt like Siddharth.
I had looked at her dumbfounded.
"She has an in Physics." Siddharth told her helpfully.
"Okay." She had said in disbelief and then looked at the woman, "So, you are saying that I am this savior of magic."
Siddharth had winced. He knew her issues with the word 'savior'.
"No, not a savior, but a protector, guardian. Magic is weak and it relies on you. Those memories, they are of other children of magic, one comes every epoch, and they are trying to teach you to commune with magic. They want you to save it. Feel the magic, Juniper. It is dying and only you can save it."
"I want to save Tom, not get saddled with another responsibility…"She had shook her head, started to get up and had collapsed as Siddharth came forward to catch her.
"Take her to the meadow."Amma said.
And despite her protests, she had been taken outside among trees and grass and she could feel the magic in their pores, feel it so powerfully.
"This place is saturated with magic because it is so close to nature." Siddharth informed her.
She instinctively held out her hand as she sat on the grass and blue swirls of magic came out of every plant and her core, her entire body started absorbing the magic. She stopped after some five minutes and her exhaustion had went away.
All the Nagas were looking at her mesmerized.
"It is not a bad thing..'Siddharth began.
'Shhh" She silenced him because she could hear magic speak to her.
"She is dying and I can't cure it." She spoke aloud several minutes later, "What is the point?"
"Yeah, she is dying. You can feel it. There are too few communities that treat her well. She is strong here but very weak in the mainland Indian subcontinent, very weak elsewhere even in US except for a few native hidden communities, weak where people are dividing it into dark, light. She needs both to survive and the prosecution of dark and the death of light by dark lords has not helped in her balance. She is dying because people refuse… refuse to treat her like a force, but divide it into constructs." Siddharth told.
"What can I do? I am but a woman. Too much damage has been done, too much lives have been lost. The matter of dark and light is at the crux of it. How can I ask people to forget it?" She asked, her voice forlorn.
"We will find a way." He had promised.
And they had. She had time traveled, not just to save Tom, but save magic in the process with Tom's help.
They had been so resolved and that was when the robot in her had switched itself on permanently. Her every single waking moment had been spent on making efforts to save magic and train for preventing the wizarding war with Voldemort.
And as for her missing Siddharth and Tom, the answer had been with Salazar. His wife, the muggleborn had been a child of magic, from the line of the Serpens. They too had interbred with nagas at some point and wielded the Parseltongue. Since their union, every child of magic from Serpens line had been promised to the line of Slytherin.
"That had nothing to do with me. I am a Potter and my mother was a muggleborn. She does not even come from a line of squibs." She had argued as Siddharth sat at her side, both mulling the problem.
"You are related to the Serpens. How? I do not know but you are related." Salazar had maintained.
"How are you so sure old man?" Siddharth had snapped.
"Because she looks like my wife." Salazar had faintly whispered and pointed towards an alcove across from his portrait.
There, both she and Sid had found a still portrait of a woman who looked pretty similar to her. Not quite doppelgangers but the liking in appearance was too close to be coincidental.
"Am I Tom's cousin then, through Slytherin and not just through the Peveral line? Are you my great grandfather? Why didn't you tell me?" She had screamed hoarse at Salazar.
"No, not his cousin. No, if Tom Riddle had been whole, as in his soul had been whole, he would have been your first mate, your alpha mate. We, I and Alessa, my wife, never had children. She died before we could. Her sister was a magical and she married into a line. I suspect you are her descendant. You were fated to link your magic with my heir, Tom Riddle. He came from Gaunts, who came from Slytherin, a bastard line that came into being when a woman assaulted me and bore my bastard children after I lost Alessa." Salazar said.
'First mate?" June had asked.
"She died, how? Children of magic do not die so easily…" Siddharth had asked.
"She killed herself." Slytherin said shortly, " I was her alpha mate but she needed her other magical mates to reign in the sheer strength of her magic. I was not comfortable with sharing. I banned her from seeking her other mates. She went insane from her attempts to handle the magic without her anchors, her mates to ground her. I simply was not powerful enough. In the end, she killed herself because her magic was getting destructive. I could not do anything. All of my line is cursed. We can be alpha mates of Children of magic but we do not deserve it. Tom does not deserved you!"
"Mates, what does that mean?" Juniper had sharply asked though she now understood why Slytherin had muttered that all in his line were cursed.
"I suspect your Naga knows June. He has known for a while. Don't you? After all, he is your beta mate." Slytherin had slyly said.
June had just looked at Siddharth and he had gone on to explain, "Children of magic are an anomaly. They occur rarely. They can tilt the entire axis of magic. They come to save magic but they can easily destroy its balance too. Every child of magic has a harem, multiple mates, from every kind of magic, dark, light, gray. The mates do not necessarily mean a lover. It means a magical link to an anchor that solidifies the child of magic's relation to the grassroot world. Often, it is very powerful witches and wizards. There is no bound on gender and sex. A male child of magic can have a male mate just as easily. For instance, you can have a female mate or multiple female mates, depends on how strong you are. The link with mates formalizes after the majority of the child of magic. So from what Salazar tells me, Riddle would have been your Alpha because of a magical vow between families. Your magic cannot find him because he is dead and your magic will keep looking for him to satisfy its needs of an anchor, a channel. I am your Beta, perhaps because I reek of old magic and since Slytherin and Naga lines are intertwined. Your magic thinks that I can fill the hole that Riddle's absence left. I did not say anything because I did not want to freak you out. You probably have other mates, people you are dependent on. Your magic would have latched to them in order to stabilize itself. The mates are kind of like stabilizers."
"So, I only feel like looking for Tom because he is my mate…"June spoke faintly.
"No, you want to look for him because you are kind. You wanted to look for him before the majority as well. But yes, you need to look for him because your magic will become explosive without him in long run. And you might just destroy the world." Siddharth argued back passionately and then continued somberly.
"Not necessarily. You can fool the magic if you find other mates, enough mates to stabilize your magic. You will have to actively fool it. That is why I did not want you to dwell on Tom. The more you dwell on him, the more aware the magic will become of the absence, and you will keep becoming unstable." Salazar told.
"I need some air" She had run away outside to Voldemort's grave.
"I am an anomaly, an aberration, a freak!" She had spoken bitterly as Siddharth came and sat beside her by the grave.
"No, not an aberration, but a gift. The world would be in a worse state if it were not for you." He argued back.
"I killed my mate and I received his rightful legacy as a cruel award. I am the Lady of Slytherin not because of conquest but that stupid vow that Salazar and the clans of Serpens made." She spoke stubbornly.
"You did not kill your mate. He could have been your mate if there were no horcruxes. You killed a monster." Siddharth shook his head.
Siddharth and she had talked at length after that day. That was when she involved the rest of her friends.
She had not focused on getting other mates because she wanted to reach Tom, her duties as Child of magic be damned.
But being the Child of magic had other perks too. Yes, she was responsible for the welfare of magic, that is every single magical creature on earth was her responsibility but her status earned her the trust and respect of other magical creatures. Goblins had helped in her researches in Egypt. Veelas had taught her the art of seduction. Centaurs had helped her with her Bows and Arrows. Werewolves, some of them had helped her with her strength training. She had been able to do and learn so much.
She had found more and more about the child of magic. From Slytherin library, from personal notes of Alessa. From the lore in Siddharth's land and from the memories that were on an onslaught on her mind.
On the advice of Slytherin, she scoured the Black and Potter family vaults to find out how she was linked to the Serpens line.
Turns out that the Blacks came from the matrilineal lines of Serpens. Alessa's sister Estelle's blood had passed through the main Black line and June got the affinity for magic from her grandmother Dorea, the only surviving daughter of the main Black line. Estelle was the reason why all Blacks were named after celestial bodies.
The other girl from the main Black line, daughter of Altair Black and Adelaide Malfoy had died at the hands of a werewolf when she was nine months old.
That was when June hatched the plan with Death to save Cordelia Faye Black and merge her soul with hers. She also saved the life of Sid's grandfather. A request to Death, that's all it took. Her friends knew that her other dimension avatar had to be Black but she never told them that she knew exactly who she was going to be when she left the dimension. In fact, she had only been able to dimension travel because her body could take the strain of the travel because she was a child of magic.
She had a solid plan and for the next 4 and a half years, she worked on it with everything.
Siddharth though, she had unintentionally gotten involved with him. She did not want to, she would only hurt him by leaving, but she had.
Another memory popped up. Siddharth's by the shades of it.
"You cannot let her Sid. You are the only one who can stop her from this madness. She can't go back in time. She cannot save Tom. He was as evil…look what he did to Ginny in the chamber of secrets…Listen to Salazar. She is better off with you…Just because Tom is her alpha mate, she thinks it is her responsibility to save Tom. She thinks he is essential to save magic while their bond is nothing but an ages old vow that tied them together. I can't." Hermione's favorite lecture tone was on and it seemed that Siddharth had been on the receiving end.
June had always known that Hermione was hoping that they would not find a way back in time.
"…tampering with time can have catastrophic consequences…She has you…She has Draco…She has us. Isn't that enough? Why does she need another mate when she has you?"
And Siddharth had lifted her and pinned her to a wall, "Granger, for a minute do not think that you can boss me or bully me the way you do to June. It is a good thing she stopped bothering about your opinion. You, Hermione, do not need to tell me how devastated I will be when she leaves. When not if, because she is leaving. She needs to do this or she will never be able to live with herself and that's problematic to you, isn't it. For the first time, June is picking her goal, her wish before anyone else's and that bothers you. June should just stay contented with what she has, she should be grateful to it. She is trying to save magic, she is trying to save the world and in the meanwhile she wants to save a boy that she thinks was hurting beyond anything. People who care about you should not be a privilege but a right. She knows Tom, she understand him because people like you and Dumbledore have made her think that love is a privilege not an entitlement. My love is not a privilege. She will have it whether she leaves or not. She will have it when she succeeds in her mission. She will even have it if she turns her back on light and starts supporting dark to align herself with Riddle. It is difficult being the mate of a child of a magic. I know that, Draco knows that…But have you ever considered how difficult it is for June to just exist? All she has known is her identity as a savior… The only reason she is alive is because of a purpose and that purpose is to save Riddle. She will stop living the day you snatch away the purpose from her. Do not presume that you can coax her into staying back just because you are afraid of a few broken hearts. I don't want her heart to break. I can deal with my heart burn. So, thank you, but I will love her the way I please, even if that love means that I have let go of her forever."
Cordelia jumped out, pushed herself out of memory, tears streaming down her face. Siddharth's loyalty had always been so endearing and it always pushed her on the edge of guilt.
She sank to the floor and cried.
She quieted down after some time. She knew that memories of Siddharth were on an onslaught because her magic was demanding a mate, demanding a majority. She was not linked Tom Riddle yet. She would not be until this body went through majority but the existing magical links were feeling the absence of their anchors and were revolting.
She wiped her tears. She knew how to deal with it though. Her strongest link had to be with Voldemort and she had lived with the absent link for over 5 years. Occulumency and runes. It had helped her to channel her grief and it had helped her to function as a root to find a solution. Right now, Siddharth was away, by how much, she did not know. She could not do or achieve anything by thinking of him and getting guilt ridden. Sid was right. Her purpose was to save Riddle. She had come so far, she would not deter only because a few memories made her lose her emotional cool.
She went to the ritual room and started drawing runes in her blood. She would lock the emotions of the memories, only retaining the information and the flimsiest feelings about her past in her mind palace. She would do it, because she loved both Tom and Sid but she had known for very long that she would choose Tom over Sid any day.
It did not mean that this was not hurting. His love and her love for him had been her biggest support system through it all. They had both …
She almost wept again.
But this was not the end of Siddharth and her feelings for him. She would come to terms with them, one day, one day when her link with Tom would stabilize and Tom would know love, that day she would open the valve of all her emotions and she would come to terms with it. She would come back to remember June, she would come back to remember her Sid, she would come back to remember their love, which had blossomed against all odds, a love that she denied, a love that she was afraid of, a love she had gotten used to.
It started out as a feeling
Which then grew into a hope
Which then turned into a quiet thought
Which then turned into a quiet word
And then that word grew louder and louder
'Til it was a battle cry
I'll come back when you call me
No need to say goodbye
She completed the runic circle and took a swig of blood replenishing potion. She went and sat down in the centre of the circle.
Then she began chanting in parseltongue, locking down her mind from certain emotions associated with tons of memories, creating barriers in her mind that were as good as unbreakable, binding them through blood.
"I bind you, I bind my memories, drowning them in my blood…I bind them until I release them again." She hissed.
She had never done this before, this barriers might fail in the near future, and they would overwhelm her. But they would buy her time, enough time to possibly save Tom from himself, enough time to secure his position in Wizarding world. Time, that is all she needed. Only Time.
Who can say where the road goes?
Where the day flows?
Only time
And who can say if your love grows
As your heart chose?
Only time
Who can say why your heart sighs
As your love flies?
Only time
And who can say why your heart cries
When your love lies?
Only time
Who can say when the roads meet
That love might be in your heart?
And who can say when the day sleeps
If the night keeps all your heart,
Night keeps all your heart?
Phew! As usual, I thought I would never get this done. It is the longest chapter yet and very important too. It is over 6500 words. I suddenly feel a need to pat my back.
I am sorry about the update being an interlude. I know all of you want to see Tom and Corrie and a lot of you hate Siddharth. I don't know why honestly. He is not a threat to Tom and Corrie's relationship. He is a dimension away. He probably cannot even survive dimension travel like June because he is not a child of magic. And this will be the last you see of him for a long time since Cordelia is locking her emotions. SO be happy. Just because she had a history in romance with another bloke does not mean that Cordelia would not love Tom as much. She would always choose him, above everybody. I hope this interlude makes that clear.
Next week will be a chapter with only Tom and Cordelia, so cheers. Just a teaser. It is called ' A hug can go a long way' and it is written because I am swamped with midterm work.
Also I received feedback that my story is a 'pain to read' but interesting. I wonder if many people feel that way. I do try my best to correct and edit the chapters but if the errors are that bad that it is painful to read, then well, let me know. I will try and do something about it but give specific feedback people.
I do not own Regina Spektor's Call or Enya's Only Time. They are just beautiful songs that I am using for my story. Don't sue me.
The idea of child of magic occurs in various stories so I don't know who to credit it for, but I am very sure that I tweaked it enough to not resemble another person's work blatantly. If I do, let me know, I will add the credits.
Please Read and Review. Also, Yippee, I crossed the mark of 300 followers the past week.
